Day Five - The Burren
We woke up fairly early on our last morning in Ireland, anxious to get started and get as much in as possible on this day, as we'd have to drive all the way across the country to Dublin by nightfall. Unfortunately, we learned that hot water in the sink at night does not equal hot water in the shower in the morning. There was no hot water at all. And we could not rouse the hosts, though we went around to the front door and knocked (they had set their guest rooms up as being locked off from the main house). Finally, I heard someone moving around in the main house and I grabbed the host and told her about the water (and also that there were no towels). She fetched me some towels, apologized about the water and said that the water heater was all the way on and it should just be a few minutes. Well, we waited for a while, but finally decided that we'd rather go without showers than wait an hour to take one (there was no sign of heat in the water, at all). We also opted to skip breakfast, again to save time, but also because I was quite irritated and in no mood to have breakfast there. She did only charge us for one (€27 instead of €54) when we informed her we were leaving without breakfast or a shower. I was none too happy.
But we soldiered on and drove around the Burren a bit more before heading east, mostly to see the Poulnabrone Dolmen, a very famous bit of antiquity in the Burren.
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An example of the roundish rocks that sit on flat limestone (often in such precariously-balanced positions), throughout the Burren. Really, quite mystifying.
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The Burren. This rock was crazy weird.
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Poulnabrone Dolmen
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A neat bugs-eye view Thierry took.
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It was hard to get a good shot that didn't include the gallery rope. This is the only place in Ireland where we saw this, and it annoyed me a bit. But the dolmen is reportedly being restored and has some structural problems.
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The Leamanah Castle. We just drove past this at the end of our Burren loop, and were struck by how gorgeous it was. When we first saw it, a flock of black birds came flying out one of the windows and it looked so cool! I'd give anything to have gotten a picture of that! It is a very photogenic castle, though.
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After leaving the Burren, we made a beeline for the east, as we had only one thing on our must-see list: Newgrange Tomb. This is a very famous passage tomb that is much older even than the Pyramids or Stonehenge, and supposedly very well-preserved. It was excavated only a few hundred years ago, and there was a slit in a rock over the entrance that had archaeologists puzzled for most of that time. A researcher discovered its purpose about 60 years ago: At sunrise on the winter solstice (providing it's a sunny day) there are about 15 minutes when the sun comes right through the crack and illuminates the whole hall! Anyway, we were very excited to see Newgrange and we spent much of the last day rushing to get to it in time for the last tour. However (I won't keep you in suspense) I had not read the guidebook entry very well and failed to notice that the last tour to see the tomb leaves... I forget what time. But anyway, we didn't make it, and we were a little bummed. But it's definitely on our list for next time. There's beautiful land around there as you'll see when I get us there.
But first we had a long day of driving, on mostly N-roads. It took much longer than we expected, and that was as much a part of the problem as the bad research on Newgrange hours. We had thought it would take us just over two hours to get across the country (Ireland is about the size of West Virginia) and it took more like four. We did see some beautiful stuff on the way, as I said.
We stopped for breakfast in Gort, where I had not wanted to stop because it sounded like an awful place (“gort” - ugh) but it turned out not to be so bad. We had breakfast at a little cafeteria that was pleasant and had good food, although they took special pains to try to force the “Full Irish” on me once again, even though I had ordered, and was looking forward to, something different. It was an accent problem, actually, and they were very nice and took the Full Irish back and brought me the thing I'd ordered, which was some sort of sandwich. A Farl?
Then we walked around the city a bit, went to the cash machine, Thierry mailed some postcards, and I took a picture of the Gort River. (Here's a mildly interesting anecdote about the cash machine: We were overlooking the ATMs at breakfast. There were two machines, side-by-side, and I noticed that if people came up and both were in use, they would line up automatically to the right of the right-hand machine, and wait for one to open. No one ever formed two lines, or even stood on the sidewalk behind the users of both machines, waiting for one to open, as we would in the States.)
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Gort River. Gort wasn't as bad as I'd expected, with a name like Gort.
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This wasn't in Gort, but at some place along the way. This picture and the two below are all of the same establishment. Which I intend to buy when I'm ready to retire.
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